13 Basic Safety Rules for Social Networking
Set up privacy settings for your online profile
Don’t publish all the intimacies of your life—your hatred for your
boss or an impending divorce — don’t become public when people find you
in a search. Facebook, for example, lets you decide who can see your
information and pictures. You can limit exposure to “friends” or even
just a few people on your list.
Don’t rush to friend your children!
There are tons of teen or college-age kids on these sites; wait to
see if they reach out to you. There are some things you really don’t
want to know about your little angels. Plus, they probably like having
their own parent-free space on the Web.
Use LinkedIn and Facebook to stay in touch with former colleagues
These days (unfortunately) you never know when you’ll need a
reference for a new job or opportunity. It’s always better to keep your
professional network strong and well-updated.
Don’t post boring status updates
Please don’t update your Facebook status every single second of your day. If you must share, save those comments for Twitter (and please don’t have your Twitter feed post to Facebook—even though you can). Trust us, your associates don’t want a dull rundown of how you overslept this morning, are having tummy issues, and can’t find that missing sock.
Think twice before friending your employees
Give a good thought before friending your employees on social sites.
They don’t want to offend you by saying no, but they also don’t want you
to see their wall posts post work hours, they have probably had enough
of you all day!
Don’t randomly add strangers
Don’t “friend” strangers and waste your time inspecting or commenting
on their profiles. Same goes for people you haven’t seen in years.
Social-networking sites are for staying in touch—not stalking!
Limit what you share
It’s fine if you want to take a “Which serial killer are you?” quiz.
When you complete all of the multiple-choice questions, however, you’ll
almost certainly be asked to invite a dozen or so people to take the
quiz, too; there’s no need for this unless you think they’ll really
enjoy it. Look for a ‘Skip this step’ or ‘Continue to result’ button (in
tiny type) somewhere on the page, click it, and you won’t have to send
invitations to anyone as a precondition to getting your quiz results.
Clicking the ‘Skip’ button on the following screen will prevent the quiz
from showing up on your wall or being shared on your friends’ walls.
Limit Facebook chat
Just because someone has a Facebook window open doesn’t mean they’re
automatically available for a chat session. Facebook Chat is like any
other instant messaging platform–use it appropriately, and recognize
that your friends may be too busy to respond immediately, especially
during business hours.
No Pokes
If you are over the age of 16, don’t “poke” people–seriously.
Avoid making Groups for official concerns
One disconcerting trend among many Facebook users involves creating a
Group for a business concern, and then inviting everyone under the sun
to join the group. This is a misuse of the feature–and bad manners–since
Groups are designed to serve as gathering places to discuss genuine
leisure, cultural, social, or other common interests, not as ad hoc copy
shops. Common courtesy should impel you not to create a Group for your
business–but if you insist on doing so anyway, please invite only
employees to join the Group. If your business needs a Facebook presence,
create an official Page for it; then, if you must, invite friends to
becomes fans of that Page.
Beware of embarrassing photos
Resist the temptation to post every last photo from your birthday
party on Facebook, particularly images that may cast your guests in an
unflattering light. If you have any doubt, ask the subjects of any iffy
pics in advance whether they’d mind your posting the shots; then abide
by their wishes.
Tag smartly
The same thing goes for tagging: The people in a picture might not
object to its being online as long as their names are not associated
with it. It is no breach of etiquette to untag yourself from any
photograph. Remember, though, that untagging is permanent: You can’t be
retagged to a photo once the tag is removed.
Ignore Away
You are under no obligation to acknowledge a Facebook friend request,
whether it comes from a stranger or from someone you know but don’t
want as part of your digital life. After all, you wouldn’t be obliged to
seat visitors at your dinner table if they showed up without warning at
your house at 7 o’clock. (One alternative way of dealing with this
situation is to add iffy contacts to a severely restricted limited
profile list.) On the flipside, if you want to friend a stranger (for
whatever reason), add a note of explanation to your friend request,
explaining who you are and the reason for your request.
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